安妮-玛丽·斯劳特（Anne-Marie Slaughter，现已在美国国务院担任政策规划司司长）在2009年曾为《外交事务》杂志（Foreign Affairs）写过一篇评论，她在文中叙述了这一新形势的合理性："在一个遍布网络的世界里，问题（的解决）不再依赖于（具有）相对的权势，而取决于在愈加密集的全球网络里占据中心地位。"
斯劳特的这篇评论取名为《美国的优势》（America's Edge），标题设计恰如其分。不过，美国民众现在正处于一个压抑的心理状态，随着中国和印度的快速崛起，有将近三分之二的美国人认为他们的国家正在衰落。
实际上，美国恰好成为处在十字路口上的国家，也恰好位于全球网络的中心，它促进了合理类型网络的发展。美国尽其所能做好一切来加强各种联系：为研究提供资金，吸引科学家参与其中；改善基础设施方便出行；调整移民制度广纳贤才；改革税收吸引成功人士；使大学生出国留学深造成为常态；充分利用赴海外服役的数百万老兵所具备的优势。
国家拥有最密集和最广阔的网络，将开创这个时代。因此，我们没有什么理由感到悲观。
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作者简介：
大卫·布鲁克斯（David Brooks）--自2003年9月起，布鲁克斯开始在《纽约时报》担任专栏作家，他曾是《旗帜周刊》（The Weekly Standard）的资深编辑，《新闻周刊》（Newsweek）和《大西洋月刊》（the Atlantic Monthly）的特约编辑，现担任PBS新闻节目“The Newshour with Jim Lehrer”的评论员，并写有多部著作。
英文原文：
November 8, 2010
The Crossroads Nation
By DAVID BROOKS
Bill Clinton used to talk about building a bridge to the 21st century. President Obama talks about laying down a “new foundation.” But Clinton was always vague about what the land on the other side of that bridge was going to look like, and Obama is vague about what edifice is going to go on top of that foundation.
They are vague because nobody is clear about what sort of country America is going to be in 2030 or 2050. Nobody has quite defined America’s coming economic identity.
In thinking about this question, it probably helps to start at the beginning. Five hundred years ago, agriculture was the major economic activity. One hundred years ago, it was industrial production. Now, of course, we’re living in an information age. Innovation and creativity are the engines of economic growth.
Howard Gardner of Harvard once put together a composite picture of the extraordinarily creative person: She comes from a little place somewhat removed from the center of power and influence. As an adolescent, she feels herself outgrowing her own small circle. She moves to a metropolis and finds a group of people who share her passions and interests. She gets involved with a team to create something amazing.
Then, at some point, she finds her own problem, which is related to and yet different from the problems that concern others in her group. She breaks off and struggles and finally emerges with some new thing. She brings it back to her circle. It is tested, refined and improved.
The main point in this composite story is that creativity is not a solitary process. It happens within networks. It happens when talented people get together, when idea systems and mentalities merge.
Now imagine you are this creative person in the year 2010, 2025 or 2050. You are living in some small town in Ukraine or Kenya or some other place, foreign or domestic. You long to break out and go to a place where people are gathering to think about the things you are thinking about, creating the things you want to create.
If you are passionate about fashion, maybe you will go to Paris. If it’s engineering, maybe it’ll be Germany. But if you are passionate about many other spheres, I suspect you’ll want to be in America.
You’ll want to be in the U.S. because English has become the global language. You’ll want to come because American universities lead the world in research and draw many of the best minds from all corners of the earth.
You’ll want to be there because American institutions are relatively free from corruption. Intellectual property is protected. Huge venture capital funds already exist.
Moreover, the United States is a universal nation. There are already people there with connections all over the world. A nation of immigrants is more permeable than say, Chinese society.
You also observe that America hosts the right kind of networks — ones that are flexible and intense. Study after study suggests that America is one of those societies with high social trust. Americans build large, efficient organizations that are not bound by the circles of kinship and clan. Study after study finds that Americans are not hierarchical. American children are raised to challenge their parents. American underlings are relatively free to challenge their bosses. In this country you’re less likely to have to submit to authority.
From this story you can see that economic power in the 21st century is not going to look like economic power in the 20th century. The crucial fact about the new epoch is that creativity needs hubs. Information networks need junction points. The nation that can make itself the crossroads to the world will have tremendous economic and political power.
In 2009, Anne-Marie Slaughter, now director of policy planning at the State Department, wrote an essay for Foreign Affairs in which she laid out the logic of this new situation: “In a networked world, the issue is no longer relative power, but centrality in an increasingly dense global web.”
Slaughter’s essay was titled “America’s Edge.” That is apt. Americans are now in a depressed state of mind. As China and India rise, nearly two-thirds of Americans believe their nation is in decline.
In fact, the U.S. is well situated to be the crossroads nation. It is well situated to be the center of global networks and to nurture the right kinds of networks. Building that America means doing everything possible to thicken connections: finance research to attract scientists; improve infrastructure to ease travel; fix immigration to funnel talent; reform taxes to attract superstars; make study abroad a rite of passage for college students; take advantage of the millions of veterans who have served overseas.
The nation with the thickest and most expansive networks will define the age. There’s no reason to be pessimistic about that.
(转载本文请注明“中国选举与治理网”首发)作者: 明子舟 时间: 2011-4-28 17:43
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